Sound-amplifier



P. R. GONSKY.

SOUND AMPLIFIER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. I2, 1920.

1,356,351, Patented Oct. 19,1920.

2 SHEETS-SHEET l.

flu no II For P57 5012, 606,21;

Quorum P. R. GONSKY.

SOUND AMPLIFIER.

APPLICATION FILED FEB. I2,'l920.

1,35 ,351, Patented Oct. 19,1920.

2 SHEETS-SHE] 2.

PATENT OFFICE.

PETER R. GONSKY, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

SOUND-AMPLIFIER.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Oct. 19, 1920.

Application filed February 12, 1920. Serial No. 358,040.

' To all whom it may concern Be it known that 1, PETER R. GONSKY, a subject of the King of England, and having made declaration to become a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certain new and useful 'Improvements in Sound-Amplifiers, of which the following is a specification.

The invention has for an object to provide a sound amplifying device of a highly efiicient character which will occupy a minimum of space and which will be adaptable to special uses.

It is an important aim of the invention to give a construction of amplifier which will amplify the lower notes of the scale with a maximum efiiciency and at the same time give a good tone quality to the upper register of sound. A further important aim of the invention is to enable the construction of an amplifier with a minimum number of parts and in an economical form.

A special aim of the invention is to provide an amplifier adapted to be incorporated in an ornamental object of comparatively small size, so as to give the necessary amplification of phonographic sound received from the sound box of the ordinary phonograph to satisfy the usual requirements of cabinet phonographs as now generally marketed, while obviating the necessity for incorporating the phonograph in cabinets of such large size as now ordinarily involved.

Additional objects, advantages and fea tures of invention will appear from the construction, arrangement, and usual relation of the parts in combination, as hereinafter described and shown in the drawings, wherein,

Figure 1 is a side elevation of one embodiment of the invention with a portion broken away,

Fig. 2 is a front view thereof,,showing also a portion of a duct for conveying sound to the device, and also a form of ornamental. casing within which it has been inclosed, in practice,

Fig.3 is a fragmentary sectional view of the receiving end of the device,

Fig. 4 is a top view of the device,

Fig. 5 is a rear elevation.

There is illustrated an amplifying and resonating device comprising a receiving or throat piece 10, consisting of a piece of wood of suitable quality having a circular passage 11 bored vertically therethrough, its exterior being rectangular in cross section and approximately square, the rear part of the device being cut away as at 12 in the lower part, in order to provide a lateral outlet for sound passing downwardly through the device. The bottom edge of the throat piece is cut on an incline as at 13, in order to abut snugly against a middle sound board 14 extending downwardly therefrom, while the top of the piece is horizontal and its upper outer side portions turned to form a frustum of a cone with concave sides, adapting the device to fit into the ornamental base 15, although the throat may be variously formed in other shapes, if desired.

Secured upon each side of the throat piece, and fitted snugly against the sound board 14, there are upper side boards 16, extending rearwardly upon the sound board, closing the opening 12 at the sides, the rear part of these sides 16 projecting a distance beyond the throat piece, and having their upper edges alined with the lower edge of the opening 12 in the throat piece. The board 14 is substantially sector-shaped, stopping short of the center upon which the sector is formed, however, and against its sides there are secured outer side boards 17, which project a distance beyond the rear part of the board 14, and also extend above and below the board 14. The upper sides of the boards 16 are inclined slightly downward, but divergently from the upper side of the sound board 14, and the upper and rear edges of the boards 17 from a point of intersection of the boards 16 and 17 are continued in a projection of this curve, which. is gradually increased in curvature to form a continuous edge with the bottom edges 17 of the boards 17. These edges 17 for a major part of the distance between the front and rear of the board are extended in rectilinear form with a slight upward inclination to the front in the present embodiment of the device. The boards 14, 16, and 17 described are formed of laminated wood of a. suitable resonant quality, in practice the boards being onequarter of an inch in thickness. There are three laminations in each board as at present produced.

An extremely thin laminated board 20 is set in the rear side of the throat piece 11, upon the upper edges of the side boards 16, forming a passage 2-4 from the throat piece, and extended rearwardly thereon and thence rearwardly downwardly and forwardly upon the edges of the boards 17, form a continuous resonating wall and floor 21, this floor being projected forwardly beyond the side boards 17 in the present instance at its central part, its outer edge curving backwardly to the ends of the boards 17 on each side. The board 17 is projected forwardly beyond the side walls and throat piece and the forward edges of the boards 1% and 17, and the floor portion 21 projected forwardly at the lower part of the device are shaped to lie in close fitting relation to the inner surfaces of the base member 15, which may be provided with a suitable form of opening for the emission of amplified sounds passing through the device. The board 20 is ordinarily formed of three lamina-tions, aggregating about one-sixteenth of aninch in total thickness, and the device as thus constructed has been found to give an excellent amplification of the fundamentals and the more desirable harmonics, eliminat ing the metallic character of reproduced sounds which the majority of mechanical reproducing devices tend to produce.

This effect may be otherwise explained but it is thought to be due to the fact that the surfaces of" thin laminated board 20 against which the sound reverberates in its passage from the throat to the enlarged mouth of the amplifier predominate over similarly exposed parts of the heavier boards and the fact that the thinner board responds more readily to the lower tones than the over tones, and there is yet sufficient of the heavier sound board to insure enough amplification of the over tones to give a good quality to the emitted product.

it should be noted that the rear part of the sound board 14 is provided with extensions 14: at each side which are projected rearwardly a distance, affording support for the rear parts of the upper side boards 16 and that the intermediate transverse inner edge of the board 14: is spaced forwardly of the rear part of the board 20 a distance sutlicient to provide an opening 22 through which sound passes from the upper side of the board 1a into the flaring mouth portion As at present constructed, the opening 22 is less in transverse area in the plane of the board 14 than is the adjacent part of the passage 24- in cross section, and this may have an effect in the good quality of tones produced by the device as observed in practice. In forming the mouth passage 23 as a return part of the upper or throat passage 2%, the single board 14 is utilized to afiect the quality of tones in both the passages,

while continuity of surface from the throat to the mouth is'made possible also. The construction also enables the production of the amplifier in an extremely light but strong form, and so as to give a considerable volume of sound although occupying but an extremely small amount of space.

In order to support the device in an ornamental base as indicated in the present instance, a vertical rod 25'is extended coaxially through the throat piece 10, the lower end being bent diagonally so as to extend through the board i l at right angles to the plane of the board to which it is secured by means of a nut as at 26, while the upper end of the rod is threaded and projected through a duct 27 leading to the throat piece and secured with a nut 28 by means of which the amplifier may be drawn snugly upward to its place. This mounting may also be applied in other forms of casings than that shown.

What is claimed 1. An amplifying device comprising a sound receiving duct a heavy sound board extended outwardly from said duct a dis tance, and an extremely thin board extended divergently with respect to said board at the opposite side of the duct and recurved around the first named board in spaced relation thereto and extended a distance divergently from said first named board at its terminal part, and side board elements closing the spaces between said boards at the sides.

2. A device of the character described comprising a throat piece, upper side boards secured to the sides thereof and extended reanvardly, said throat piece being open at one side between said boards, a sound board extended diagonally from the throat piece beneath said upper side boards, and being considerably wider than the throat piece and having lateral edges convergent toward the rear, lower side boards laid against said lateral edges of the said lower sound board, the upper and lower side boards having alined edges at their junctiomand a continuous extremely thin board bent around said upper and lower side boards from the throat piece to form a continuous passage outwardly and thence inwardly and forward beneath the. sound board, for the purposes described.

In testimony whereof I have affixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

7 PETER R. GONSKY.

Witnesses:

JOHN IVASKEVIGZ, EMMA VAN Errs. 

